Cultivation of Arabic. Land. Tkre/hinf of Graiti ~*by the Machine. Q9& 



it, as the faving in various ways muft foon repay them the cxpence of the machines, 

 and at the fame time afford them a confiderable profit. 



Befidcs, where the threfhing is performed by the flail, expenfive barn floors, 

 cither of the fixed or moveable kind, will conftantly be neccffary. The latter fort 

 may, indeed, fometimes be capable of being converted to other purpofes. In this 

 way too the produce is conftantly expofed to the depredations of the perfons that 

 are employed in executing the bufinefs, which in many cafes proves afourceof 

 great lofs to the farmer, as he cannot by any means prevent the impofitions to 

 which it is liable. It has been well obferved by the intelligent furveyor of a 

 fouthern diftrict, that where thrcmers are employed by the day, they frequently 

 do not perform half the work that ought to be done in the time, nor even that in 

 a perfectly clean manner ; and, that if it be executed by the quarter or the trufs, 

 the freed corn is threfhed out and the reft left in the ear.* The fame thing takes 

 place in a greater or lefs degree in every other method that can be adopted for 

 having the threfhing performed by the hand j it is consequently only by the general 

 introduction and ufe of the threfhing machine, that the property and intereft of the 

 farmer can be fully fecured, and the work be executed with that degree of economy 

 which the greatly increafed price of labour demands. 



The fuperiority of the method by machinery over that of the flail is very con 

 fiderable in many other refpects, befides thofc of its executing the work in a much 

 more clean and perfect manner, ^ and with infinitely greater -difpatch, fo as to 

 admit of the farmer being prefent during the procefs. Sufficient fupplies of both 

 corn and ft raw may at any time be almoft immediately provided, either for the 

 purpofes of feed, the market, or the feeding of animals, without the other opera 

 tions of the farm being in any degree interrupted. It is like uife obtained with much 

 lefs wafte of the grain, and with lefs danger of its being injured by being 

 bruifed. 



From the increafing fcarcity of labourers, the great advances in the price of 

 labour in all the well-cultivated diftricts, and the impoflibility of having this fort 

 of work performed in a clean manner by the flail, the neceflity as well as utility of 



* Corrected Agricultural Report of Middlefex. 



t It was found by the author of the Survey of Kent, on having different parcels of wheat-ftraw of 

 thirty-fix pounds each threfhed out clean by the flail, by different farmers, and the fame weigh; of 

 raw threfhed after it came from the machine ; the average produce of corn left in the ft raw by t if&amp;gt; 

 common mode of threfhing was half a, pint in every thirty-fix pounds of ft raw, more than that left in 

 the machine method. 



